Over the last few days I've been exploring the driving forces that lead me to create Astrida Naturals.

There's nothing easy about starting a business, especially a skin care brand. I've talked about functional and emotional reasons I started Astrida Naturals. I had the idea from another business, the design background to create something I knew people would want and the maker mentality which fueled my drive to learn how to do it.

Part 3: The final reason I started Astrida Naturals is because I became obsessed with simple, natural skin care.

From Part 1 of this series, you already know the idea to sell shea butter came from Azizi Books, the African American themed bookstore I co-founded with my father. I wasn't always a natural skin care enthusiast, but getting into the maker mentality made me want to understand skin care ingredients.

I’ve never been one to fuss over my appearance too much. I don’t usually wear much makeup. I prefer a comfy pair of jeans over a tight dress any day. I like to be outside, swim, run, bike and more. I generally love being active and occasionally getting dirty and don’t at all mind getting wet in the rain.

Natural skin care is a fit for my lifestyle.

Shea butter, in its most natural unrefined state is far more skin care benefits than the more processed, refined variety. Shea butter is also incredibly versatile. If simple, natural skin care is your thing; unrefined shea butter can potentially replace some of the other products you're using.

I created Astrida Naturals finally, because I realized that many mainstream products were unnecessarily complicated. Some had insanely long ingredient lists dictated by overzealous marketing departments who want to claim their product can do it all. I've always believed in the beauty of simplicity. A line of simple, natural skin care products featuring shea was the solution.